Post navigation

Thursday, August 28 – Doctor’s Weekend One To Remember

OCEAN CITY – It was out of the frying pan and into the fire last weekend for a Frederick, Md. doctor, who crash-landed his private plane on a runway at the Ocean City Airport last Saturday before returning home on Sunday and getting arrested on sex offense, assault and drug possession charges.

Tragedy was averted last Saturday when an 83-year-old pilot was successfully able to crash land his small private plane on the runway at the Ocean City Municipal Airport after his landing gear failed to open. The pilot, Robert David Crouch, 83, was traveling from Frederick in western Maryland to Ocean City in his Beech Craft Baron “D55” plane, when he ran into trouble as he approached his destination. When Crouch went to activate his landing gear during the approach to the Ocean City Airport, he found out the gear was not working and he had to perform an emergency landing.

Just before 5 p.m., Crouch was able to successfully crash land the twin-engine airplane on the belly of its fuselage on runway two at the Ocean City Airport. Crouch, the only occupant of the plane, was not injured in the crash. The Maryland State Police and Worcester County Bureau of Investigation (WCBI) responded to the scene and investigated the incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently investigating the crash. The airport was closed due to the plane crash but re-opened about 45 minutes later.

Last Saturday’s emergency crash landing was just the beginning of what would prove to be a long weekend for Crouch, who apparently returned to Frederick sometime after the crash to face serious problems of a different sort.

Back in Frederick on Sunday evening, Crouch was arrested and charged with fourth-degree sex offense, second-degree assault and possession of marijuana after getting pulled over in his vehicle after a female tenant of a home he owns reported his alleged illicit sexual advances toward her.

According to charging documents, Frederick police were called to the residence and interviewed a 43-year-old woman who is renting the home from him. The alleged victim told Frederick Police Crouch had made unwanted sexual advances toward her. She further told police it was not the first time and that Crouch had sexually assaulted her during a prior incident, but said she did not report it at the time for fear of being evicted.

A short time later, Frederick Police stopped Crouch in his vehicle to question him about the complaints made by his tenant. During a search incident to the stop, a bag with about five grams of marijuana in it was found in the doctor’s vehicle, according to police reports.

Crouch was charged with fourth-degree sex offense, second-degree assault and possession of marijuana and was released the same day on his own recognizance.